Who knew
by beautifulXflowerXJo
Summary: This is what I think should've happened in "The Chamber of Secrets" after Draco called Hermione a mudblood. One little apology could've made all the difference in the world. DracoHermione.


_**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter; if I did it would be called "The adventures of Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger". **_

**A/N: This is my take on what should've happened in "The Chamber of Secrets" after Draco called Hermione a mudblood. I wasn't sure if I should upload it or not but in the end I did. I know that Draco, and probably Hermione too, may be OOC but I like them this way. I'd love to hear what you think =]]**

Draco Malfoy was walking through the barely lit Hogwarts corridors heading to the girls' bathroom on the second floor. He couldn't believe he was doing this but he had this nasty feeling of guilt inside of him that wouldn't go away, so he decided that this was the best way to get rid of it. He shook his head disapprovingly. Since when did a Slytherin feel guilty about anything? Since when did a _Malfoy_ feel guilty about anything? And most importantly, since when did _**he**_ feel guilty about anything? He shook his head again. This was a huge blow to his pride but nevertheless he kept on walking through the darkness.

_**Flashback:**_

_Draco walked into the Great Hall for dinner with his loyal followers Crabbe and Goyle by his sides. As he walked his gaze accidentally fell onto the Gryffindor table and he noticed that the little bookworm wasn't in her usual seat next to Scar-head. He wondered why (not that he cared or anything). When he took his seat at the Slytherin table he heard a pair of fifth year girls talking._

"_Did you hear what happened to the Granger girl?"_

"_Yeah, Malfoy called her a 'mudblood' today, right?" Draco smirked at this._

"_Yes, he did but that's not what I meant. I heard from my friend Jane, you know she's a Gryffindor, right? Well, she told me that Little Granger locked herself in the girls' bathroom. She was there all day, crying." _

_Draco's smirk slowly turned into a frown. Had what he had said affected her **that **much? Well… so what if it did? He had only said the truth to her face after all. It wasn't his fault if she couldn't handle it. He continued listening to the girls' conversation._

"_Oh, poor girl! She must feel terrible. Boys are** so** thick!"_

"_I know! Some guys can be **so **insensitive!"_

_After that the girls started talking about their lessons and Draco stopped listening. He looked over at the Gryffindor table once again half-expecting to see Hermione there with her nose buried in a book or nagging the weasel to eat with his mouth closed. Her spot was still empty. He felt something tug at his chest, something he didn't feel very often, almost never. He actually felt guilty. Shrugging it off he decided that it'll go away if he didn't think about it but every time his eyes passed the empty seat he felt worse. So he got up with a sigh and left the Great Hall._

_**End of Flashback.**_

So here he was now, standing in front of the door of the girls' bathroom, wondering _what the hell_ was wrong with him. For a moment Draco thought that it would be best to leave right now. What if somebody saw him there? No, nobody would come, especially in the evening. Everyone was afraid of Moaning Myrtle. He stepped inside and looked around. There was a big statue-like stone in the middle with a lot of sinks and on the right were the cabins. As he got closer to them he heard quiet sobbing, so quiet that he scarcely heard it at all. He was sure who it belonged to, so he listened carefully until he could tell which cabin it was coming from. He leaned a bit against the door and knocked twice, then listened for any sign that the crying girl had heard him.

Hermione's breath caught in her throat. Who would be here at this time? Harry? Maybe Ron? Ginny? No, it was dinner time. Everyone was supposed to be in the Great Hall. She quieted down but didn't say anything.

Draco closed his eyes slightly annoyed. Why was he doing this again? _Stupid guilt… _He sighed re-opening his eyes and knocked once more.

"Granger? ... You in there?"

Hermione gasped as she recognized his voice. It was so quiet that he didn't even hear her. What was _he _doing there? She definitely wasn't expecting anyone to come looking for her, especially him. She felt very angry. How dare he come after what happened? Wasn't he satisfied already? Had he come to gloat or just to torture her some more?

She was debating on what to do: stay inside and ignore him or open the door and slap him across the face. Not knowing what to do she just waited to see what was going to happen.

Draco just waited. When he didn't get an answer he sighed again. He had thought this wasn't going to be easy and it turned out he was right.

"Look, Granger…" he started. "I'm…" _Oh,_ _blast it! _"… sorry. Okay? I'm sorry! There, I said it!" he said huffing.

The bathroom fell silent. The only sound that could be heard was coming from the water dripping from one of the sinks. The doorknob of the cabin slowly turned and Hermione stepped out. She was flushed from all the crying and her hair was somewhat messed up.

Draco winced slightly when he saw her puffy eyes and her tear-stained cheeks. Was he really the one who caused all of that? He mentally slapped himself. _Of course he was!_ In his defense, he didn't mean to do all that, he had just wanted… Well, he didn't really know what he had wanted. Perhaps to show her that he was better than her by being a pureblood. Or maybe to prove that even though she was the top of the class (her grades being higher than his) she was still nothing compared to him.

They both stood there in silence, neither of them sure of what to say next. Hermione, who to this moment was staring at the floor, glanced up at Draco and saw that his eyes were also downcast. She took a shaky breath and decided to break the silence, voicing the thing that was bothering her.

"Why did you do it? What I mean is…" her voice lowered to merely a whisper "…did I do something to make you hate me?"

"I …" he paused looking up at her surprised. He had expected her to walk away from him, insult him or even hit him but it had never crossed his mind that she might blame herself for his rudeness. _Oh, Merlin, now what?_

Draco had been taught ever since he was very young that muggleborns were filth; that they were the lowliest creatures and that they weren't worthy of having magic. He was taught to hate them because of what they were – mudbloods. But now, at this very moment, while he was staring at the brown orbs of the girl in front of him, he felt like he couldn't hate her anymore.

Hermione on the other hand truly couldn't understand what she had done to make him act like that towards her. She hadn't insulted him first, had she? No, she couldn't recall doing such a thing. She had never said something bad against him. Harry and Ron (mostly Ron), yes, but she had never supported them in their hate towards the Slytherin prince. Then why was he so cruel to her? Maybe because she was a Gryffindor. Or maybe because she was a muggleborn?

She waited patiently for his answer while she watched as he furrowed his eyebrows, obviously thinking, creating lines across his forehead. She subconsciously lifted her hand and smoothed them. His head shot up and when she saw the startled look on his face she couldn't help giggling. She never thought she'd see the day when Draco Malfoy would be surprised by something, least herself. Seeing her laugh at him, Draco made an outraged face, which caused her to laugh harder. Draco just stood there watching her as if she was crazy but soon he couldn't stop himself and joined her.

After some time, when they had finally managed to calm down they looked at each other and both smiled. Draco hadn't felt this good and free in forever and Hermione felt incredibly happy from the fact that she had broken the ice between them. They were both content with the way the situation had developed.

"Will you forgive me, Granger?" She smiled again.

"As long as you promise it won't happen again." He nodded seriously. She looked at the watch on her wrist.

"It's almost curfew so we better head to the dorms. The others must be there already." she made an attempt to go around Draco but he stopped her by grabbing her hand.

"Wait." she looked at him expectantly and he hesitated a bit before asking. "Do you think… it's possible for us to be… friends?"

Hermione just stood there staring at him. Had she heard correctly? _Friends?_ He continued.

"I can understand if you don't want to. I mean, we're from different Houses, we have different blood-status, different class…" she glared at him and he smirked. "…alright, we can scratch the last one."

Despite her attempts to keep glaring at him, she smiled. She was really starting to like this side of Draco. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad to be his friend after all. Who knew.

"So…" he trailed off waiting for her to answer.

"I'd love that." He grinned. She looked down sadly. "But I don't think anyone would accept it." Draco frowned upon hearing that.

It was true that no one would approve of it, especially her _so-called_ friends. Besides, if his father heard about it, he would probably be so outraged from the fact that his son was associating with a muggleborn, that only Merlin knows what he would do. Draco considered this but the desire of having a real friend, who liked him for himself and not for his rich family, managed to win. Because as sad as it was, except for Blaise, there was no one that Draco could turn to when he wanted to talk. All of the other Slytherins feared and respected him but none of them could really qualify as his friend.

"You know," Hermione pondered for a bit before continuing. "I guess if no one knew, it wouldn't hurt, right?" he smiled.

"Yeah, that could work." he paused looking into her eyes. "Thanks, Hermione."

Hearing Draco say her name was really strange. No, don't get her wrong, it was a good kind of strange. It was different and she liked it. She smiled at him. Yep, who knew?


End file.
